Nursery Rhymes and their hidden meanings

 Nursery Rhymes and their hidden meanings.. 

The first songs and verses  we teach our children are often those our mothers taught us.  With a gentle rhythm and easy rhymes they are quickly remembered.  These are the so -called ‘Nursery Rhymes’. But not all of them are what they seem.  Rhymes were used to make comments on current affairs, some of which would have been politically sensitive.  Nicknames, innuendo and euphenisms were necessary in difficult times when it was preferable to be safe than sorry. 

Let us consider one or two and you will see what I mean.  We will start with one of the most well known, ‘Ring a Ring o’ Roses. 

As a child I imagined a kind of dance round the maypole in a rural paradise.  Not so.  The ring of roses was a circular red body rash, the posies contained  herbs to cover the smells or, it was thought, a defence against infection, ‘Atishoo’ was violent sneezing and ‘all fall down’ was a reference to death.  All symptoms of the Great Plague, or Black Death which killed over half  London’s population in 1665.

Another nursery rhyme with a grisly origin is ‘Mary Mary, quite contrary’.  You may not want to read this, because ignorance is truly bliss on this one. 

Is it about a lady in a crinoline dress walking down a garden path admiring her flowers as depicted in children’s books?  Absolutely not.  ‘Mary’ is Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII, the Bloody Mary of 1553-58 and a staunch Catholic.  The garden in question is a graveyard of martyred Protestants, the ‘silver bells a euphemism for thumbscrews  and ‘cockleshells’ were also tools of torture.  The ‘little maids’ derived from ‘The Maiden’ an early English version of the guillotine.  I will never sing that one again….

Do you want to hear more about ‘Jack’ aka King Louis XVI who ‘broke his crown (was beheaded) and Jill – Antoinette who was executed later?  The final verse was added later to give the it a happier ending.

When you played the game ‘Oranges and Lemons’ as a child and skipped under the joined arms of your friends for the final ‘here comes a chopper to chop off your head’,  that was scarey enough if it was your little head being caught.  It was as well that the original meaning had been obscured by time because the arms represented the infamous Tyburn Tree where executions were carried out and heads literally chopped off.  It was certainly not a game in those days. 

The following rhymes are less gruesome and more of a social statement.

‘When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?’ Was the theme of the Peasant Revolt in 1381.  England was spared a revolution by the action of  Richard II a brave 14 year old who saved the day by riding into the mob and shouting ‘Would you kill your king?’  They didn’t but his retinue killed their leader.

‘Little Tommy Tucker’ was a colloquialism for an orphan.  In 1829 orphans were so destitute that they had to beg and sing in the streets, literally for their supper.  Which serves to remind me of the little Tommy Tuckers still begging for food in so many of our cities today, especially in the Third World, where hunger and Aids means that their numbers are increasing.

‘Pop goes the weasel’ never did make any sense to me, except to visualise a furry little animal exploding for some reason.  Then I learned  about the cockney background of rhyming slang and the poverty in the East End of London when the rhyme was penned.  ‘Pop was another word for ‘pawn’, ‘stoat’ rhyming slang for ‘coat’ so the translation was that a coat was taken to the pawn shop to get some extra cash.  The Eagle was a much visited local pub.  Read it again, it’s a comment about poverty and money being wasted on drink.

Half a pound of tuppenny rice, half a pound of treacle,

That’s the way the money goes, pop goes the weasel.

Up and down the City Road, in and out the Eagle,

That’s the way the money goes.

Pop goes the weasel.

If you want to know more about Little Polly Flinders and whipping stools for girls,  or Goosy Goosy Gander who was believed to be a witch, then  check out some sites for yourself.  As for me, I think I’ve learned more than enough for the time being.